Overcoming Smartphone Obsession

Vivek Karthikeyan
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read

“No Notifications.”

These are the words you’ll probably see the most any day, but still fail to notice it.

Grabbing your phone once in every three to five minute interval has now become a habit. Not for texting someone, not to pickup a call, not to take a photo but just to see this — “No Notifications”. But why?

I’m no different from this, I still happen to look at my phone every now and then for no reason.But, as every other person, I hated it. I hated myself every time I peeked into my smartphone that read — no notifications. Why are we so much compelled to peek into our mobile phones even when there’s nothing new to see? Are we obsessed with it? Addicted? Thoughts like these made me to think and frame some steps one can take to reduce or completely overcome the urge to look at their smartphones often.

To me, I think this obsession and urge to look at our smartphones is nothing but an addiction towards social media. The following steps will help in controlling your social media usage (not actually, but at least through your smartphone).

P.S These are self experimented stuffs. Try and let me know if it worked ;)


Use a Single Medium

When Facebook brought similar features into WhatsApp and Instagram, one thing we failed to realise was, all three apps now serves the same purpose (connecting friends and building community) & also now, has the same features!. You can post stories, chat with your friends, view their stories in all the three different medium. This seems a great idea, but what I would suggest is to stick to a single medium. Use any one of the three and you can simply cut off 2/3rd of your notifications ;) Think about it!

Turn On Notifications

Yes, turn it ON. The more you get to hear the notification sounds of your smartphone during your work or study time, the more you get frustrated on losing your productivity (yes, it isa kind of reverse addiction method) and begin to think about ways to avoid it. Turning your notification On also means now you don’t have to peek into your mobile screens often just to glance at empty notification bar. Use only when you get notified about something important and be ready to stay away from it when you don’t get a notification.

Shorten Your Social Circle

This might sound odd, but yes this helps. The lesser the friends you have, the lesser the notifications are ;) There is a popular saying that goes like this “Sometimes, your circle decreases in size. But Increases in Value”.
It’s not bad at all to have fewer friends. Having many friends is not going to take you higher and low friends is not inferior at all.

Avoid Group Chats

This is the most annoying of all. Group chat notifications. It’s always good to stay away from groups that are very active in sending meaningless forward messages, dare messages and news from 500 B.C. Muting all the group chats is also an option.

Get a Smartwatch

Smartwatch nowadays have tons of features which we can put to help to overcome your obsession with smartphones ;) it even allows you to live without you looking at your phone at all. All the notifications are available in the watch and you don’t have to peek into 5.5in screens anymore. This may sound funny, but trust me I’ve seen people who say this helped them in obsession reduction. More advantages — fitness trackers embedded in watch also notifies you when you’re needed to take a jog or walk ;)

Do not deactivate

Deactivating a social media account is never an easy option. Deactivating an account kind of puts more thoughts into your mind of missing something important event, post or a friends text, though you’ll never be getting any when you’re active. Learn to control and face it, instead of closing and running away from it only to come back at a later time.

It’s okay if you don’t Socialize

Yes, not everyone needs to know what you are doing with your life. Many successful people come into social media actively only after becoming successful and you’ll never know how they achieved a lot without socializing with friends of their community. I have many “normal” friends who don’t have accounts in any social networks and are able to live and lead a “normal” life like us. There are still loads to learn.

Peace out! :)

(All views and thoughts are personal and any criticism is welcome and appreciated! )

)

Vivek Karthikeyan

Written by

Product Designer | Also Interested In- Psychology | Photography | Books | Beaches | And Coffee.

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